⚡THIS CRYSTAL CAN STORE DATA FOR 13.8 BILLION YEARS ⚡
A startup from the United Kingdom, SPhotonix, is bringing out of the lab a storage technology that seems like science fiction: the 5D Memory Crystal, based on fused silica glass disks etched with ultra-precise lasers.
A single disk of about five inches can hold up to 360 TB of data, utilizing five dimensions of encoding: three-dimensional position of points, orientation, and intensity of light.
This combination creates an extremely dense memory and, above all, incredibly durable.
The truly revolutionary feature is longevity: the structure of the glass and the storage method are designed to remain stable for an estimated time of 13.8 billion years, which is the approximate age of the universe. It requires no power, cooling, or continuous maintenance: the data simply remains “static,” immune to magnetic degradation, obsolescence of media, and many environmental conditions that would destroy traditional hard disks.
SPhotonix has announced that in the next two years it will start pilot projects with data centers, aiming to transform this technology into a real solution for long-term storage.
Reading and writing speeds today are still lower than conventional media, but future developments aim to drastically increase performance.
If the validation process goes well, this technology could redefine the storage of scientific archives, critical government data, and permanent records of humanity, becoming a sort of “digital Rosetta Stone” for the upcoming technological eras.
